404musicfandomcom-20200214-history
Vectors
Vectors ''is the eleventh studio album by 404. It is the shortest studio album in 404's discography at only 33 minutes and five seconds in length, two minutes and 42 seconds shorter than ''Steelhead. The album was originally released to the 404 Bandcamp and Soundcloud pages as well as YouTube on July 19, 2017. Background In March, 2017, Louis released two studio albums, Issues With Aggression II: The Aggressionning ''and ''Every Hour. The former was less of a focus for him and was treated mostly like a side-project, while Every Hour ''was far more conceptual and had more time and effort put into it. ''Every Hour ''was the most progressive 404 album to have been made up to that point. With songs like "Machina," "Where I Am Free," "Frontfucked," and "Pleas of the Living Dead Men." it was an experiment in song structure and was continuing in the rock direction of some tracks from ''The Great Unknown. Vectors, ''on the other hand, began as a concept for an entirely different album than its predecessor. The album would be minimalist, repetitive, short, and focused more on the lyrics. It would be a sort of back-to-basics record after the progressive song structures of the previous album. Another idea was to do something Louis had previously never done and create multi-part songs that would be spread throughout the album's track listing. The song "Slow Burner" was originally written and recorded as a demo for the cancelled band project between Louis, JC, and KC called FOSSIL. The version that appears on ''Vectors ''is instrumentally re-worked but the lyrics remain mostly the same (the original demo was released as the b-side to the "Slow Burner" single). While the album's instrumentals were being made, Pentex reached out to Louis to ask to help out on a 404 album. Louis agreed, deciding that the original instrumental for the track "Written on the Back of a Highway Billboard" could use more atmospherics. Recording and Production After ''Every Hour ''was finished and read to be released near the end of March, 2017, production began on ''Vectors. With the minimalist concept in mind, "A Softer Pillow" was the first instrumental made for the album. Gradually, the production of the instrumentals became less focused on the original concept for the album. Instrumentals such as "Into the Egg Beater" parts 1 and 2, "Endless Freeze Pt. 2," and "But I Can't Say I Expected You to Become a Door-to-Door Salesman" were louder and more in-your-face, directly in contrast what the album was initially supposed to be. Pentex created short instrumentals that would be used as atmospherics to color out the the beat for "Written on the Back of a Highway Billboard." The vocals were recorded on a Blue Snowball microphone just like every release since Until I Die. This is notable because Vectors ''marks the last time that Louis would use this microphone to record his albums. Music and Lyrics Musically, ''Vectors ''is rather scattershot. The album as initially conceptualized never really came to pass. When compared to ''Every Hour, it's certainly less unpredictable and more streamlined, but it also isn't the minimalist and repetitive album that it was planned to be. Tracks like "A Softer Pillow," "Written on the Back of a Highway Billboard," "Slow Burner," and "Endless Freeze" parts 1 and 3 are certainly more minimalist and subdued. While they do have their builds, none of them are consistently loud or sprawling. "Endless Freeze Pt. 2" is reminiscent of ''Every Hour ''with it's progressive song structure. No other track quite reaches this high, but songs like "Into the Egg Beater Pt. 1" and "But I Can't Say I Expected You to Become a Door-to-Door Salesman" are similarly in-your-face and aggressive. Lyrically, the album delves into some familiar topics for 404, like depression ("A Softer Pillow," "The Rocking Chair," "Smile") and war ("Into the Egg Beater" parts 1 and 2). The political themes of the album come from current events at the time that had Louis frustrated with the state of American politics. There are some new topics as well. The song "Slow Burner" is a story of two dead people rotting away in a house that then burns down around them. "But I Can't Say I Expected You to Become a Door-to-Door Salesman" is metaphor for a failing relationship that the protagonist witnessed fall apart from one decision that his partner made. Album Art Louis wanted a white, sleek album art design using only straight lines (or vectors) that would create a rainbow. He designed a rough draft of the art which was given to KC who created the final design. When KC copied Louis' design idea, Louis wasn't completely satisfied. So they tinkered around with the design until the final four-corner color sprawl effect was achieved. Track Listing Personnel Louis Falgout - Vocals, production, writer Pentex - Co-producer on "Written on the Back of a Highway Billboard" KC - Album artCategory:Albums